Camera software
Lenovo’s circular-themed customised UI also includes Lenovo-developed apps. For imaging, the K900 comes bundled with SuperCamera and SuperGallery.
The SuperCamera app is a full-featured camera app with plenty of different Extension modes to play with including Burst, Panorama, Night Portrait, HDR, Low Light, Smile, Macro and Timed Portrait. There are also default pre-set Scene modes like Night Scene, Portrait, Landscape, Motion and Firework.
If lenses are your thing, SuperCamera includes a barrage of Extension lenses for post processing. From Lens Effects – TiltShift, Blur, Backlight, Fisheye; Magic Effects – Glass, Thermal, Pencil; Colour Effects – LOMO, Pop-art just to name a few, it will likely satisfy every enthusiast’s imaging dream.
If you need more fine-tuning, you can access further settings to control Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, White Balance and ISO.
Performance
I tested the K900 in different environments and lighting conditions. In daylight and with sufficient light, the 13MP camera captures details really well. I was especially impressed with the quality of macro shots, with colour reproduction being quite outstanding.
The other area where the camera excels is in HDR mode. While the resolutions defaults to 5MP when in HDR, again colour reproduction and details are captured really well.
In low light conditions, the Exmor RS module fares well too. While noise is expected, it’s kept at bay thanks to the bigger pixel size and RGBW coding.
An area where the camera needs to improve on though is the autofocus and shutter speed when in low light conditions. It can sometimes take several seconds to lock on, and may even take several attempts to properly focus. You may at times end up with out of focus shots. Somewhat strange because the K900 sports one of the world’s fastest lens to date. Perhaps a firmware update will speed things up.
Video capture performance is good helped by Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS), and audio quality comes out good too thanks to a secondary microphone. Video is encoded with the H.264 MP4 codec in a .3gp wrapper.
Some sample shots
My favourite subject: Food.
Macro
Indoor
Outdoor
Low light
HDR
Panorama
Verdict
The K900 camera is, without a doubt, one of its greatest features. A great performer that captures details and colour well. While there are a few areas where it can be improved, it impresses overall. Lenovo certainly made the right choice integrating the Exmor RS into the K900, putting it on par with pricier competitors out there.
